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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-15 Daily Xml
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South-East Links Road Duplication Project

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Regional Roads. Is the government investigating the South-East links road duplication project and, if so, what is the status of that investigation?

Mr Whetstone: Toss a coin.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:51): Yes, we work collaboratively in this government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Florey, the member for Cheltenham, the member for Elder—order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, order! Member for Elder! The minister has the call.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The Department for Infrastructure and Transport regularly investigates road upgrades, duplications, regularly looks at planning, regularly looks at what it is we need to do to improve the road network. The road mentioned by the member and a number of roads all across South Australia are under the care and control of not only the South Australian government but also some local councils. We work in a collaborative way to look at planning to see what we can achieve. Obviously, there are limited funds across all jurisdictions for important road maintenance and new roadworks.

The planning unit within the Department for Infrastructure and Transport does this from time to time on a planned basis, and even on an unscheduled basis, at the request of members of parliament. For example, sir, I know that you have asked us to look at a number of pieces of infrastructure within the Adelaide Hills, in the Mount Barker council area, and we are doing so. I know that members in Narungga, MacKillop and Mount Gambier have also asked us to have a look at infrastructure, as have members on this side of the parliament. I get regular letters from members opposite asking us to do planning works and look at, in particular, pieces of infrastructure in their electorates. We do what we can with limited resources.

We make our announcements after considerable consideration, we do it in a budget process and then the Treasurer stands up once a year on the budget and announces the government's forward spending on infrastructure. We have priorities that are in place, there for people to see. We do all of our planning work in anticipation of funds becoming available. We prioritise and triage those on the basis of best value for money, and we do so in the public interest.

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